{"id":706174,"date":"2026-05-31T11:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706174\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:20:13","slug":"spurs-beat-reigning-champions-thunder-in-game-7-to-set-up-nba-finals-date-with-knicks-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706174\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs beat reigning champions Thunder in Game 7 to set up NBA finals date with Knicks | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

For large parts of this season, many wondered if the Oklahoma City Thunder had any weaknesses. One thing the reigning champions didn\u2019t have was Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, who led the San Antonio Spurs to a Game 7 victory in the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

The Spurs\u2019 111-103 victory on Saturday night means they will face the New York Knicks<\/a> in the NBA finals, with Game 1 set for Wednesday in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

It would be a disservice to Wembanyama\u2019s teammates to say the result was solely down to the 7ft 4in Frenchman, though. Julian Champagnie scored 20 points, including six three-pointers, Dylan Harper looked dangerous whenever he came off the bench and Wembanyama\u2019s backup, Luke Kornet, pulled off a brilliant block at the rim in the fourth quarter as the Thunder threatened a comeback. Wembanyama finished the game with 22 points and seven rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t know how much I love them, and everyone stepped up tonight,\u201d the 22-year-old said of his teammates.<\/p>\n

The Thunder, who were without Jalen Williams due to a hamstring injury, fought hard even as the clock ticked down but they were forced to take hopeful threes from well outside the arc and the Spurs had the final say with a breakaway dunk.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama was named the series MVP and was in tears at the end of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cRealizing that some part of a childhood dream is going to come true,\u201d said Wembanyama when he was asked why he had been so emotional as his team clinched their place in the finals. \u201cWe\u2019re still hungry, we want more. This feeling is so powerful, I can\u2019t explain it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA<\/a> MVP, was typically brilliant for the Thunder, scoring 35 points and dishing out nine assists. But none of his teammates scored more than 20 as they relinquished their title.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to grow from every experience, including the tough ones,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the NBA \u2013 there are tough ones. We can also be really disappointed … There\u2019s nobody that we don\u2019t think we can beat, respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Spurs, they are confident of the road ahead. They may also be cheered by history: the last time the Knicks made the NBA finals, in 1999, they faced the Spurs, who won the series 4-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never knew if we were going to get this far but when you\u2019ve got the greatest player in the world things happen,\u201d said Champagnie after the game.<\/p>\n

It was hard to disagree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For large parts of this season, many wondered if the Oklahoma City Thunder had any weaknesses. One thing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-706174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}